Flooding in Wagga Wagga

A mass evacuation is now underway in Wagga Wagga after new forecasts predicted the Murrumbidgee River would overflow the town's levee system. More than 5000 people have been ordered to evacuate flood-stricken areas across Australia's New South Wales, with evacuations continuing in the Riverina and central west regions of the state.

Nine more areas in the Riverina in south-west NSW have been declared disaster zones by State Emergency Services Minister Michael Gallacher, Xinhua news agency cited local media as saying on Monday. "We are also expecting to declare more local government areas by the end of the day," Gallacher said. "This year alone the government has declared more than 35 local government areas as natural disasters as heavy rainfall continues."

So far, 5000 people have been forced to evacuate from their homes across NSW and another 2000 from mostly rural properties remain isolated.

More than 1000 residents from the Riverina city of Wagga Wagga's north and east have been evacuated so far.

Australia's Flood Situation Worsens

Australia's flood crisis went from bad to worse Saturday with a giant "inland sea" threatening more communities in the southeast, as officials continued the grim search for bodies in worst-hit Queensland.

Sandbagging is underway in some villages in Victoria, where weeks of floods have affected as much as one-third of the state, with swollen rivers overflowing in 75 towns and flooding some 1,770 properties.

"We know that this is the most significant flooding in the north west of Victoria since records began... about 130 years ago," a spokeswoman for the State Emergency Service told reporters.

"We are still on alert for towns in the north of the state."

Floodwaters which national broadcaster ABC described as a moving "inland sea" covering an area 90 kilometres (56 miles) long and 40 kilometres wide, were threatening towns around Swan Hill, les than 200 miles northwest of Melbourne.  The forming "inland sea" could get bigger.

"In the actual Swan Hill township itself, we are very confident that the levee system around the town is built to a very high grade and will protect the township," Mayor Greg Cruickshank told ABC radio.

But rural and outlying areas "will have significant amount of inundation through them," he said.

While thousands of people around the state have been urged to evacuate, emergency services warned that those people who choose to remain on their properties in the rural areas could be stranded by the floods.

RickLimpert.info Picture of the Week: Australian Floods

Floods In Australia Over 200000 People Are Affected: Australian authorities say the floods in the north-east of the country is a disaster ‘of biblical proportions. “Up to 200.000 people were affected by the floods that have hurt the country’s lucrative mining industry and cut off major highways, such as water rushes through soaked in inland regions to the sea.Floods continued to grow in some parts of Queensland on Saturday. Some communities are likely to be consumed over a week.



Terrible floods in Australia.  Donate to help if you can.

Floods in Australia Bring Many Questions

Brisbane - Large parts of the capital of Queensland state resembled a muddy lake, with an entire waterfront cafe among the debris washing down the Brisbane River, a torrent that has flooded 12,000 homes in the city of 2 million and left 118,000 buildings without power.

With 35 suburbs flooded, many parts of Brisbane looked more like Venice as residents used boats to move about flooded streets, where traffic signs peeped above the stagnant water.

The floodwaters destroyed or damaged many parts of the city's infrastructure. One group of residents was lucky not to disappear into gushing waters when the street they were walking along collapsed.

Aerial views of Brisbane showed a sea of brown water with rooftops poking through the surface.

"What I'm seeing looks more like a war zone in some places," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.

"All I could see was their rooftops ... underneath every single one of those rooftops is a horror

Officials warned of the risk of further severe flooding in the coming weeks, with two months of the wet season ahead and already overflowing dams requiring seven days to empty to normal levels to cope with more heavy rains.

South of Brisbane, neighbouring New South Wales state has also been hit by flooding, prompting evacuations of many small residential areas, while in the southeast Victoria state has experienced flash floods and landslides.

Further north, in Queensland's coal mining heartland, one of the nation's biggest export earning regions showed signs of recovery, with coal-freight operator QR National QRN.AX saying its worst-hit rail network could reopen in a week.

Supplies Flown in to Flooded Areas in Australia

Military planes were flying food and other supplies toward a major city being slowly swamped in Australia's flood emergency today, and police were increasing patrols in evacuated regions amid reports of looting.

Flood waters that cover an area the size of France and Germany combined are draining slowly toward Australia's north-eastern coast, filling rivers to overflowing and inundating at least 22 towns and cities in the cattle and fruit and vegetable farming region.  Residents have never seen flodding like this.

A 41-year-old woman was swept to her death in front of her family Saturday in Burketown, in hardest-hit Queensland state.  Searches were under way for two other people, men in separate locations in Queensland, who were missing after being last seen in the flood waters.

In the coastal city of Rockhampton, inhabited by 75,000 people, waters from the still-swelling Fitzroy River cut the main road leading to the state capital of Brisbane. Scores of families abandoned their homes for relief centres set up on high ground.

Forecasts say more rain may be on the way to the region.